One U.S. Territory Has ZERO Covid-19 Cases: American Samoa

• American Samoa has zero cases of the coronavirus, so far.
• Reports credit swift government action for the U.S. territory’s success in handling the crisis.
• In 1918, they also had zero cases of the Spanish flu.

All eyes are currently on the United States as their coronavirus figures continue to increase by the day. As of this writing, the country already has over 1.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a death toll of more than 74,000.

Despite the overwhelming figures, however, it is worth-noting that at least one part of the country , American Samoa, has zero infections and thus, zero deaths. So how did this U.S. territory with a population of 55,465 successfully combat the virus?

According to a report by the NewYorkTimes, American Samoa wasted no time and immediately sprang into action when the infection started spreading in the U.S. Officials quickly “halted nearly all incoming flights, rapidly boosted testing ability and took advantage of social distancing strategies that had already been adopted in response to a measles outbreak at the end of last year.”

Schools remained closed and church services have been suspended to avoid mass gatherings. Bars and restaurant, however, continued to operate although they only accepted a limited number of customers.

Government offices continued to function, although schedules had to be changed to accommodate fewer staff members at a time. A special coronavirus taskforce was also formed in March.

Governor Lolo M. Moliga sent a letter to President Donald Trump requesting immediate assistance. The territory eventually received federal aid worth $35 million, with 1,000 test kits and an analyzer machine.

Of course, it should likewise be mentioned that American Samoa also previously survived another pandemic, the Spanish flu in 1918, and the lessons they’ve learned then – and in other outbreaks such as Zika (2016), dengue (2017) and measles (2018) – proved to be useful in handling the present crisis.

As Tamari Mulitalo-Cheung of the American Samoa Community College summed it up:

“Stringent measures kept American Samoa free of deaths then, and we cannot afford to deviate from the same today.”